


Don't Leave Me (but at least I went down fighting)

by brianbrain



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Force Bond (Star Wars), The Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:41:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22045786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brianbrain/pseuds/brianbrain
Summary: Din does something very stupid to protect his child.
Relationships: Baby Yoda & The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 219





	Don't Leave Me (but at least I went down fighting)

"I'm not going to make it," Din hears himself saying. He's come to terms with that already, after belatedly realizing why Gideon's aim had shifted from a useless shot against his armor to behind him. There's so much blood, too much. The fabric between him and his neck brace is soaked and oversaturated with it, causing more to drip down slowly but steadily. Yet Cara's still there, staring down at him with wide eyes.

"Stay with me," she pleads.

"Leave. Take the child. Bring him to the covert in the sewers and give them this," he insists, pulling off his amulet with trembling fingers. "Tell them it's from Din Djarin. They will help you."

"No," Cara says. "We can save you. C'mon--"

"Go," the Mandalorian hisses. "I'll hold them off as long as I can."

If he must die on this Manda-forsaken place, he will do it as a warrior.

When he blinks, they're all gone.

No, that's not right. The IG unit is still here.

"I am a nurse droid," it informs him flatly. "I can help you."

"With what?" Din replies. He can feel how shaky his voice is, and how weak it's getting like the rest of him. There's not much time. "You don't have a med-kit. Help me up so we can at least take some troopers off their tail." He grunts as he sits, the world slightly tilting when he does.

Yeah, that's not good, but if there's one thing Din knows how to do right, it's how to get back on his feet. He ignores the fact that he barely manages it with IG-11's hesitant support before shouldering his blaster.

"Let's go," he says, forcing a semblance of confidence into his voice that he does not feel. _I'm doing this for the kid._ "Just start shooting as soon as we're spotted. There's nothing else we can do. We're too disadvantaged."

"I believe that this is a bad idea," the droid protests. But when it is ignored, it scoops up two blasters from the floor and follows him.

There's fire everywhere and it seems the troopers are trying to regather and reevaluate. White shells of Imperial soldiers litter the ground. Din's eyes become heavier with each step and it would be a lie if he said it was easy to keep them open.

(They're not; he desperately wants to give in to the weakness spreading through his limbs as he crouches behind an empty crate sufficiently close to the gaggle of Imperials. But he's got to follow through on this. For the kid.)

IG-11 shoots first. He thinks he sees Gideon fall. There's definitely a lot of troopers getting cut down, at any rate.

He knows at some point the Imperials can and will overrun them, but he also knows they are slow to react. So while he and the droid wait to be blasted to bits, they take countless others with them. 

IG units are really useful in that way.

At some point he just can't do it anymore; his fingers are numb from pulling the trigger and his eyelids too heavy. His ears ring and everything hurts. 

When the Mandalorian finally slumps to the ground, it is the one and only time Din Djarin doesn't get back up.

* * *

Ever since Cara and Karga had started into the sewer, the child just wouldn't stop squirming.

"Shh," Cara whispered, glancing nervously around. Beside her, Karga was surveying the tunnels. Left? Or should they go right?

Could they risk making noise? Would Mandalorians find them first and allow them to explain, or would troopers hear and go trigger happy?

Cara's decides on trying out the right-turns-only rule, trudging along until Karga whines behind her, "We're going to wander for days at this point!"

"We have no choice," Cara hisses back, but then is distracted by the now flailing pouch across her chest. "Ow!" she yelped, trying to get a grip on the child to lift them away from her body. "Why are you kicking?"

The child responds with a scream.

It was one that could be heard even halfway across the galaxy, by children playing in meadows and old women in their homes, by hunters and everything from plants to a bantha or a Wookie.

Cara and Karga desperately clapped their hands over their ears, stumbling away, a meek defense behind the pain and anguish the sound carried.

* * *

He'd been tired when he was handed off and the ones carrying him started moving again, but nothing woke him up more than the sudden realization that his guardian was hurt and they were leaving him behind.

He wished he could yell, why are you leaving him? But he already knew the answer to that. His protector, had told them so. That didn't change the fact that the child wanted the Knight to be with them, and he tried to get the attention of the one carrying him, tried to tell them that they ought to go back. No, they had to go back. The one who had defended him countless times was defenseless and _dying_.

He could feel the pain, the light slipping away from the one who had protected him. Why couldn't they go back? Why couldn't they go get him? He shook the edges of the bag he sat in furiously. _Look at me_ , he begged. _Please_.

He wasn't fast enough. By the time he'd got them to look at him, his guardian had already slipped away. He was _gone_.

When he opened his little mouth to say as much, what came out instead was a piercing scream.

Why did you leave him, said the scream. Why is everyone chasing us? Why couldn't we _help_? Why is he _gone_? He sobbed, keening, and tears trickled out of his wide eyes as he curled into himself. _Why_?

He didn't stop for a long, long time.

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly you could way expand this and maybe I will.


End file.
